_H. caput-medusæ_
[Sidenote: =A dinner thrown away=]
While driving through the White Mountain Notch, many years ago, I
chanced upon a mass of cream-colored, fringy fungus growing upon a
fallen beech-log by the side of the road. The fungus was then entirely
new to me, and I lost no time in making a sketch of it, with notes.
The growth covered a space possibly eighteen inches wide by eight in
height, and I estimated it would weigh fully five pounds, its most
marked feature being the dense growth of drooping spines. In my limited
knowledge of edible fungi at the time, I cautiously left the specimen
in the woods, afterwards to learn from Dr. Harkness, the mycologist,
that I had "thrown away five pounds of the most delicious fungus meat
known to the epicure." I have since found minor specimens many times,
and can readily understand the enthusiastic encomiums of my connoisseur
friend as to its esculent qualities.
[Illustration: _Hydnum caput-medusæ_]
_PLATE XXVIII_